The Weekly Wrap

Despite the hell-and-high-water predictions of Storm Brian ahead of QIPCO British Champions' Day, Ascot got off pretty lightly on the weather front and served up a day of outstanding action with multiple storylines to savour.

The name Frankel (GB) has never been far from conversations surrounding Champions' Day since the reworked version was first staged at the Queen's racecourse in 2011–the year Frankel himself was a 3-year-old and brought the curtain down on his season with a four-length victory in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. He of course concluded his career in the same spot the following year when winning the G1 QIPCO Champion S., the race which has now provided him with a first European Group 1 winner as a sire via Cracksman (GB).

Frankel and Nathaniel (Ire) were exact contemporaries on the racecourse, beginning and ending their careers in the same races at Newmarket and Ascot respectively, and now members of their first crops, Cracksman and Enable (GB), racing for the same stable, have been two of the outstanding 3-year-olds in Europe this season. The only headache their trainer John Gosden will have next year is how to keep them apart in the major middle-distance races of the season.

And of course the man who gave his own name to the champion racehorse, the late Bobby Frankel, has been very much in the minds of racing folk in the last few weeks as Aidan O'Brien closed in on his record of 25 top-level wins in a season. In fact, O'Brien, who on Saturday received his British champion trainer's trophy from Gosden, equalled the record that day with a win from Hydrangea (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S., and rather ominously has 22 entries in this Saturday's G1 Racing Post Trophy.

De Sousa The Humble Hero
In many ways Champions' Day is made for Frankie Dettori, and vice versa. The world's most recognisable jockey was in his element, flying through the air in trademark fashion after winning the last two big races on the course at which he posted his first Group 1 win aboard Markofdistinction (GB) in 1990.

The real champion of the weighing-room, however, is Silvestre de Sousa, whose second jockeys' title has been achieved without hullabaloo but with a Herculean amount of hard graft.

De Sousa has none of the showman qualities of Dettori but every bit of his talent. His aim for the season, apart from reclaiming the champion jockey crown from Jim Crowley, was to ride 200 winners. This he achieved, plus one for luck, setting a personal best in the process and finishing 56 wins clear of Luke Morris in second.

One would naturally expect a jockey with de Sousa's voracious appetite for riding winners to be in demand at every showcase meeting throughout the summer. Oddly, he can often be found instead at one of the minor meetings, opting to go where a full book of rides will help push his tally higher still, his lack of retainer with a major stable meaning that he is at no-one's beck and call.

Indeed, a key to his success appears to be that he treats every race just the same–his determination to win a seller just as great as it would be in a Classic. I have the good fortune to own a filly on whom he won four times this season–once riding her at Yarmouth during Glorious Goodwood–with her last victory coming in the Bath Stayers' Final, which offered a much higher level of prize-money than she'd raced for previously.

Reflecting on the filly's season on Saturday, de Sousa said sheepishly, “You'll crucify me for this but I had no idea how valuable that race was until after she'd won.”

Conversely, I believe this is what sets him apart. How many jockeys go out to ride without knowing what their winning cut might be? Simply, every possible opportunity for victory matters to de Sousa, and it shows.

While racing undoubtedly needs characters such as Dettori to appeal to a broader audience outside the sport, a modest, hard-working champion should be admired and lauded by those of us who follow racing on a daily basis.

Born To Ride
On the subject of jockeys, David Egan would have been an obvious pick to succeed on breeding. This season's champion apprentice is the son of jockey John Egan and Sandra Hughes, who recently relinquished her training licence after enjoying a couple of fruitful seasons when succeeding her late father Dessie Hughes, who was also a top-class jockey. Continuing the list of successful riders on the page is the young Egan's uncle Richard Hughes, while John Egan's cousin is Paul Mulrennan.

Even with such a heritage, there's never any guarantee of success, as we see all too often in the world of thoroughbred breeding. Egan, however, looks as if he was made for no other role but to be on board a racehorse, his lightweight frame and balance making him a natural. Furthermore, his quiet assuredness and polite disposition will doubtless be to his advantage in his next big step from apprentice to senior jockey. We certainly haven't heard the last of him.

Acclamation's Growing Influence
New stallion announcements are coming thick and fast, and one of the most welcome in the past week has been the news that the National Stud has gained another new face who looks to have great commercial appeal. Martyn Meade's first Group 1 winner, Aclaim (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), bred in partnership by Meade's son-in-law Dermot Farrington and Canning Downs, will remain in Newmarket to stand alongside the southern hemisphere recruits Spill The Beans (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) and Tivaci (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}).

Acclamation, a son of the Royal Studs' veteran Royal Applause (GB), is now 18 himself and the Rathbarry resident has not only enjoyed a terrific year with his runners but also a dramatic expansion of his own particular branch of the vast Northern Dancer dynasty.

His most prevalent son at this stage is Dark Angel (Ire), whose popularity appears to know no bounds, and who notched another Group 1 winner on Saturday in Cheveley Park Stud's Persuasive (GB). Dark Angel also has a growing army of young sons at stud, including Heeraat (Ire), Alhebayeb (Ire), Estidhkaar (Ire) and Lethal Force (Ire).

Acclamation's top-rated son, the dual Group 1-winning sprinter Equiano (Fr), continues to be a dependable sire for Newsells Park Stud and has G1 Diamond Jubilee S. winner The Tin Man (GB) and G3 Prix du Petit Couvert winner Lady Macapa (GB) among his best representatives this season. Harbour Watch (Ire), meanwhile, is on the Tweenhills roster and has produced the G2 Prix Robert Papin winner Tis Marvellous (GB).

The winner of seven of his 15 starts, including the G1 Prix de la Foret and G2 Park S. on his last two outings, Aclaim, whose dam is a half-sister to the G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Again (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), is being managed by the new partnership of John Ferguson and Mark McStay. The latter has recently left Godolphin to form McStay Bloodstock and will work on selected projects with his former boss.

In Bloom All Year Round
It has been a heady fortnight for owner Tony Bloom, who has enjoyed high-profile victories at both ends of the distance spectrum on consecutive Saturdays.

The one anomaly on Newmarket's Future Champions' Day is usually the historic and gruelling 2m2f Cesarewitch H., but this year's race may fit the label that is really meant for the accompanying 2-year-old races on the card. The winning jockey Silvestre de Sousa was a champion in the making when steering home Bloom's favourite Withhold (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) who, with only ten races under his belt, could well be a future champion of the staying ranks.

A week later it was the turn of Librisa Breeze (GB) (Mount Nelson {GB}), who relished the soft ground at his beloved Ascot to deliver a dogged victory for Bloom and trainer Dean Ivory in the G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint.

While these may be his biggest wins on the Flat this year, Bloom also enjoyed success at the Cheltenham Festival back in March when the Willie Mullins-trained Penhill (GB) stormed to victory in the GI Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle. Like Librisa Breeze, Penhill is a son of the versatile Mount Nelson and was also bred by Newsells Park Stud.

As the chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, however, Bloom may well consider his greatest sporting achievement of the year to be the promotion of the 'Seagulls' to the British Premiership in April.